Northwest NEWS

February 5,2001

Sadness and bitterness need to be put behind voters

This is in response to the Jan. 15 letter to the editor on why many vote NO on Riverview School District athletic fields. The writer believes that the fields proposed would only serve to "further divide the communities of Carnation and Duvall." We believe just the opposite, that the failure of the fields is what is dividing our two communities. This is not an easy situation for all involved. Whenever you combine two communities into one school district, someone is bound to feel left out somewhere.
As for memories and traditions, there is a place in the hall of CHS commemorating Tolt High School and there is also a wonderful display of memorabilia in the Carnation Senior Center. The physical school remains and reunions can still be held there. In the meantime, we are talking about the school and facilities of new generations.
As hard as it is for some to accept, Tolt is no longer the high school. The kids at Cedarcrest deserve their own facility on the grounds of their own school so they can start building their own memories and traditions. This facility will go way beyond a place just to play their games, it's also required for the daily practice regimen needed for sports training, not to mention basic curriculum for physical education needs.
Regarding the traffic problems around CHS, we agree that the roads need to be improved. However, in the meantime, traffic can be dealt with as we do now for basketball games, volleyball games, band concerts, etc. Most of the subdivisions around the high school were built after the school so the people living there knew when they purchased their homes that a high school was nearby. If they didn't want to deal with traffic, they could've chosen not to buy there.
The problem with the writer's proposal to build a state-of-the-art-facility at Tolt is overuse of the Tolt field.Tolt needs their own facility, as well.
An additional field is necessary with the increased population. The previous bond proposal did try to benefit all of the district's schools by providing improvements to all facilities, so it's not like the District hasn't tried to include everyone.
The writer states that it is not fair that the students who live in Carnation have to travel to another community to attend school and all extra curricular activities. How does making students who live in Duvall travel to Carnation solve this problem?
Further, what about all those years the Duvall students did, in fact, travel to another community when Tolt was the high school? Or what about, all of the current Duvall middle school students who now have to travel to another community for their school and activities? The point is, given our community's situation, we all have to give and take to be united.
Yes, there will be another bond at the polls as there should be.We only hope that people who share the writer's opinion will stop and think about the realities of the situation, put the sadness and bitterness of losing their high school behind them and simply vote yes. That is what will help ease the divisiveness of our two fine communities and it is the right thing to do.
Karen and Denny Gunderson, Duvall